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Connecting the timezones this week are Will Bain in London, David Kuo in Singapore and Emily Peck in New York to unpack the week’s biggest business stories. China’s economy has recorded one of its weakest quarterly growth rates on record, raising fresh questions about the country’s outlook and the impact on the global economy. Plus, why prices for durian, the ‘king of fruits’, are tumbling across Asia. And New York’s move to target AI data centres.

Presenter: Will Bain
Producer: David Cann

You can email the team: businessdaily@bbc.co.uk

(Picture: People walk in the Lujiazui financial district, in Shanghai, China, 14 July 2022. Credit: ALEX PLAVEVSKI/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)

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England’s World Cup semi-final against Argentina delivered the biggest single night of trading that Britain’s pubs and bars have seen all tournament, with transactions up 145 per cent on the day and late-night trade between 10pm and 2am up 97 per cent, according to new figures from payments company Square.

For a sector that entered the summer counting closures rather than customers, Wednesday’s numbers are the clearest evidence yet that the tournament’s forecast multibillion-pound windfall is landing in tills rather than staying in spreadsheets.

The scale of the semi-final effect becomes obvious when set against the rest of England’s run. The quarter-final against Norway on 11 July lifted pub and bar transactions by 40 per cent, a strong night by any normal measure, yet barely a third of Wednesday’s uplift.

Venues did not even need England on the pitch to feel the benefit. The Spain v France semi-final on 14 July, a fixture with no home interest whatsoever, still gave pubs a 26 per cent lift.

The late-night figure will be particularly welcome. The government’s contingent relaxation of licensing hours allowed licensed premises in England and Wales to keep serving until 1am for the semi-final, and the near-doubling of trade after 10pm suggests operators made every one of those extra minutes count.

Outside London, the biggest winners were in the Midlands and the North. Birmingham topped Square’s table of major English cities, with transactions at pubs, bars and restaurants up 121 per cent on the day of the Argentina match. Southampton followed on 115 per cent, with Manchester close behind on 112 per cent, Bristol on 93 per cent and Sheffield on 76 per cent.

John O’Beirne, CEO of Square International, said the tournament had been a landmark for the industry. “The World Cup has been an important moment for British hospitality. Football fans have turned out to support their country game after game, and England’s match against Argentina drew the largest crowds yet to pubs and bars. Even though England won’t be in the final, we can still expect bars and pubs to see strong trading as people tune into the final weekend of the tournament.”

There is one wrinkle for operators eyeing Sunday’s final. The automatic licensing extension applied only to matches involving a home nation, so with England out, venues wanting to trade beyond their normal hours will need a Temporary Event Notice rather than a free pass.

For SME owners, the numbers carry two lessons beyond the tournament. The first is that big-event demand is now predictable enough to plan for, which is why insurers have been urging operators to prepare for event-driven demand spikes months in advance, from staffing to stock to licensing.

The second is resilience. A 145 per cent surge in card transactions is only good news if the card machines stay up, and June’s Worldpay outage during England’s group game against Ghana showed how quickly a bumper night can turn into a cash-only scramble.

England may not have made the final, but for the nation’s publicans the tournament has already paid out. The question now is whether Sunday’s crowds turn up for the football alone, or simply because going to the pub for the big match has become a habit again.

Amy Ingham

Amy Ingham is a reporter at Business Matters, covering UK business news with a focus on breaking news, business policy, late payments and insolvency. She joined the magazine in 2026 after completing the NCTJ Diploma in Journalism at Harlow College’s journalism school. Her recent reporting includes British Steel’s nationalisation and its impact on SME suppliers, the decline in late payments by large firms, and Insolvency Service director disqualifications. Reach her at aingham@cbmeg.co.uk.

The fund should come out of a review of the Development Bank of Wales’ funding remit

One of the most interesting economic announcements from the Welsh Government in recent weeks was not a new strategy or another consultation exercise, but a small loan scheme for farmers.

On the face of it, the Sustainable Agriculture Loan Scheme is a modest £5m pilot, delivered through the Development Bank of Wales, offering fixed-rate loans to farms seeking to invest in renewable energy, energy efficiency, storage, waste and nutrient management, equipment, processing and infrastructure.

It is long overdue, as Welsh farming is undergoing a difficult transition and many farms will need capital to modernise, reduce costs and adapt to the demands placed on them. A long-term loan at an affordable rate is more disciplined than simply handing out grants, and if an investment saves money, raises output or strengthens the business, finance should be repaid over time.

But the more important question is why this approach should apply only to agricultural businesses? If a farm can access patient, affordable financing to invest in solar panels, new equipment, or improved processing capacity, why should a manufacturer, food producer, hotel, engineering firm, or logistics business not be able to do the same?

The underlying economic problem is not unique to agriculture, as too many Welsh firms lack the capital, confidence, or incentive to invest in the technology, equipment, and systems that would make them more productive. That matters because productivity is now supposed to be the North Star of Welsh economic policy, which is not surprising given that GVA per hour worked in Wales was just 84.9 per cent of the UK average in 2023, the lowest of the twelve UK nations and English regions.

Yet if productivity is the objective, the machinery of economic development has to change, and all the institutions of Welsh economic policy need to be directed squarely at the problem and that must start with the Development Bank of Wales,

However, there is a major problem here, as its annual business loan interest rates currently range from 6.25% to 13%. As the bank’s senior management has argued many times, those rates reflect risk, security, and each applicant’s financial position, and that is how commercial lending works.

But compare that with the new farm scheme, which offers a fixed rate of 3%, loans from £25,000 to £1m, repayment terms of up to 15 years, and a six-month repayment holiday. That is not a small difference but a completely different proposition, and a Welsh business borrowing at the development bank’s average rate of 8.56% over five years faces a very different investment calculation from that of a farm borrowing under this scheme.

Certainly, if the Welsh Government believes that patient capital with lower interest rates over an extended repayment period can help farms invest to become more productive, resilient, and sustainable, then why is the same principle not being applied to investment across the wider Welsh economy, as some of us have been proposing for years?

Given this, should the development bank now make productivity-enhancing investment its primary strategic purpose and reorganise the bank’s public mission around a clearer test: i.e., will this investment raise output, reduce costs, improve margins, increase wages, expand capacity, strengthen exports, or reduce carbon intensity? If the answer is yes, then that business should be eligible for patient, affordable finance

So why not introduce a Welsh productivity investment loan as the development bank’s flagship product?

It could support smaller firms with microloans for digital systems, software, energy efficiency, equipment and process improvements. It could back established SMEs with larger loans for machinery, automation, robotics, storage, production systems, AI adoption and low-carbon technology. It could fund long-term strategic projects in manufacturing, food and drink, tourism, life sciences, engineering and advanced services where the investment case is clear.

The key is that the test should be the investment, not the sector, and a farm investing in new storage capacity or a food manufacturer investing in refrigeration and automation may be solving different operational problems, but economically they are both trying to do the same thing, which is to produce more value from the same or fewer inputs.

This is where public finance can make a real difference, as commercial lenders are often cautious about long-term productivity investments, especially for smaller firms without strong asset backing. Many businesses know they need to invest but hesitate because payback periods are uncertain, interest rates are high, or day-to-day pressures consume management attention. Indeed, that was one of the primary reasons for creating the Development Bank of Wales 12 years ago.

Of course, this should not become cheap debt for weak firms with no future as Wales does not need a subsidised survival fund for businesses that are not prepared to change. This would also change how we measure success, as too often, economic development in Wales has been judged by how much money is lent, how many businesses are supported, or how many jobs are claimed and not by productivity outcomes such as turnover per employee, margin improvement, wage growth, energy efficiency, export growth, capacity increases, and private investment leveraged.

The farm loan scheme should therefore be seen not as an exception, but as a pilot for the rest of the Welsh economy. If long-term, affordable finance can help farms invest to become more resilient and productive, then the same principle should apply across the Welsh business base.

The new Welsh Government has promised to review the activities of the development bank so what better time to shift its strategic focus from general business finance to a national productivity mission?

Because if Wales is serious about closing the gap with the rest of the UK, then the question every publicly backed business loan should ask is simple: will this make a Welsh firm more productive and if the answer is yes, then give those firms the affordable patient capital to make it happen.

The latest Market Talks covering the Health Care sector. Published exclusively on Dow Jones Newswires at 4:20 ET, 12:20 ET and 16:50 ET.

1304 ET – Johnson & Johnson’s latest quarterly results offer a positive signal for medical device end markets, even though the company reported lower-than-expected growth in its medical device division, Baird analysts say in a note. J&J’s medical technology miss was largely due to company-specific issues in its cardiovascular unit, masking reasonably solid performances from surgical, vision and orthopedics, they say. The analysts say the report offers positive read throughs for companies like Zimmer Biomet Holdings and Stryker in orthopedics, and for Medtronic and Abbott Laboratories in cardio and electrophysiology, among others. (kelly.cloonan@wsj.com)

Heavy, pungent wildfire smoke darkened skies across a wide stretch of the United States on Thursday, from the Great Lakes to parts of the East Coast, reducing visibility in major cities and prompting warnings that breathing the outside air could pose a serious health risk to millions of people.

The smoke, drifting south from hundreds of active wildfires burning across Canada, triggered air quality alerts in at least 18 states stretching from Minnesota to New Hampshire and as far south as Virginia. According to the Canadian Wildland Fire Information System, roughly 858 wildfires were burning across Canada as of Thursday, the majority concentrated in the province of Ontario, where 113 fires remained classified as out of control. Some of that smoke traveled more than a thousand miles to reach cities in the United States, including New York City, despite Toronto itself sitting more than 1,100 miles from where many of the largest fires were burning in sparsely populated parts of Ontario.

Milwaukee bore some of the worst conditions recorded anywhere in the country. City officials said the Wisconsin city recorded its worst air quality on record Thursday, with an Air Quality Index reading of 644, more than double the city’s previous record of 300, which had stood since 1987. Readings at that level fall far outside the standard 0-to-500 scale typically used to describe air pollution, reflecting just how severe the smoke concentration became in parts of the Upper Midwest.

Milwaukee was far from alone. According to rankings compiled by the air-quality monitoring service IQAir, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Minneapolis, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C., were among the cities most heavily affected by the smoke, with several registering conditions officially classified as hazardous, the most severe category on the U.S. Air Quality Index. Parts of New York City recorded AQI readings exceeding 200 Thursday evening, a level considered “very unhealthy,” while officials in several cities warned that readings above 150 posed a danger to the general public, not just to individuals in traditionally sensitive groups such as children, older adults or people with existing respiratory conditions.

All of New York State, including New York City, along with parts of New Jersey, was placed under an air quality advisory Thursday because of the smoke. Images from around the city showed the sun shrouded behind a thick haze as it set behind Manhattan’s Hudson Yards development, while in Chicago, residents sought relief along the Lake Michigan shoreline even as smoke settled over the lakefront. In Minneapolis, Mayor Jacob Frey urged residents to monitor the latest health guidance from the city as conditions continued to shift, saying officials would continue tracking the situation and sharing updates as needed.

Forecasters said the smoke was expected to remain a significant problem through the end of the week and into the weekend. According to meteorologists, the latest wave of smoke settled unusually close to the ground because of a shift in the region’s weather pattern, in contrast to an earlier smoke plume earlier in the week that largely remained higher in the atmosphere and caused comparatively less severe surface-level pollution. As a result, air quality deteriorated sharply across the Northeast, Great Lakes and Midwest, with forecasters warning that poor conditions were likely to persist through Saturday as additional plumes of smoke continued arriving from the north.

Health officials have said the extreme smoke was expected to linger through Thursday evening across the Upper Midwest, including northern Wisconsin and northern Michigan, before continuing to affect the New York City area and other parts of the Northeast. Broader estimates from meteorologists tracking the smoke’s reach suggested that unhealthy air quality was affecting more than 120 million people across the Midwest and Northeast as of Thursday, underscoring the scale of the event compared with more localized smoke episodes in past summers.

Wildfire smoke of this kind carries fine particulate pollution known as PM2.5, tiny airborne particles capable of traveling deep into the lungs and, in some cases, entering the bloodstream when inhaled. Exposure to elevated PM2.5 levels has been linked to a range of health effects, including irritated eyes and airways, coughing, difficulty breathing, and worsened symptoms for people with asthma or other chronic respiratory or cardiovascular conditions. Health officials have urged residents in affected areas to limit time spent outdoors, avoid strenuous physical activity outside, keep windows closed, and run air conditioning or air purification systems on recirculating settings where possible to reduce the amount of smoke-laden outside air entering homes.

This week’s smoke event adds to what has already been a difficult wildfire season across parts of North America. Wildfires within the United States, mostly concentrated across the western half of the country, have burned more than 3.6 million acres so far this year, contributing to smoke and air quality concerns that had already affected parts of the West, the Plains and the Midwest earlier in the summer, independent of the thicker Canadian smoke now moving over the Great Lakes and Northeast.

Photographs and video captured across affected cities Thursday showed the extent of the smoke’s visual impact, including images of the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor photographed from the Staten Island Ferry against a hazy, smoke-filled sky, and children continuing outdoor activities such as playing football in New York parks despite the deteriorating air quality around them. Similar scenes played out in Toronto, where a plane was photographed landing at Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport amid smoke that had settled over the city a day earlier.

With hundreds of wildfires continuing to burn across Ontario and other parts of Canada, and forecasters warning that additional smoke plumes remained likely to drift south in the coming days, officials across the affected U.S. states said they would continue monitoring air quality conditions closely and issuing updated guidance as the smoke’s movement and intensity continued to shift through the remainder of the week and into the weekend.

Kotak Mahindra Bank shares jumped nearly 3% to trade at Rs 386 apiece on the NSE, as seen at 12 pm. Federal Bank shares gained more than 2%, while those of HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and Axis Bank rose more than 1% each.

The gains pushed the Nifty Bank more than 500 points higher to 58,095. State Bank of India (SBI) and IndusInd Bank shares gained nearly 1% each, while those of Yes Bank, Bank of Baroda and others dropped around 1%.

What to expect from banks’ Q1 earnings?

As many as five heavyweight private banks, including HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, ICICI Bank and Yes Bank, are all set to announce their results for the April-June quarter of the ongoing financial year 2027 on Saturday (July 18), with analysts issuing mixed views on which stock investors may consider buying ahead of the Q1 earnings print.

Nomura in its note said that it expected banks under its coverage to report modest core-PPOP growth, led by soft NII growth and controlled opex, while seasonally higher credit costs keep PAT growth muted. It named ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank as its top picks.

The international brokerage said that reported loan growth has been strong for HDFC Bank and Yes Bank, but soft for Axis Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank. For ICICI Bank, Nomura expects loan growth to be strong. However, it overall expects net interest margins to moderate for the lenders.

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Also read | Q1 Showdown: Analysts pick top bets as ICICI Bank, HDFC, Axis, Kotak, Yes Bank gear up for results this week
“We expect Q1 FY27 to be another steady quarter with negative surprise, if any, coming from possible NIM contraction. Provisional numbers suggest solid performance on loan growth across banks (large/mid, public/private/SFB). Asset quality is holding up well across banks and products, with no discernible impact from the current crisis in the Middle East. We prefer frontline banks to others looking at the current macro set-up, which could see NIM pressures abating from hereon,” said Kotak Institutional Equities.

Technically, Nifty Bank is expected to find immediate support near 56,800–57,000 zone, while the 58,200 level is likely to act as a key resistance, said Vatsal Bhuva, Technical Analyst at LKP Securities. Until a decisive breakout or breakdown occurs, the undertone is expected to remain neutral, making a buy-on-dips near support and sell-on-rise near resistance strategy favourable, the analyst added.“On the upside, 58,700 (June’s high) remains the immediate hurdle. A decisive close above this level would confirm a breakout from the ongoing consolidation and could trigger the next leg of the rally towards 59,300 and eventually 60,000 levels in the coming weeks,” said Bajaj Broking.

Also read | Reliance Industries shares jump 2% ahead of Mukesh Ambani-led company’s Q1 earnings. How to trade stock today?

(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times)

Pokémon Trading Card Game collectors are already chasing a handful of eye-popping price tags just as the franchise’s newest expansion, Mega Evolution — Pitch Black, hits shelves on Friday, July 17, with early secondary-market data showing one Mega Darkrai card commanding close to $1,000 in the set’s first week of release.

Pitch Black marks the latest entry in Pokémon’s Mega Evolution era of releases and centers on Dark- and Ghost-type Pokémon, with Mega Darkrai serving as the expansion’s headline creature across a set built around eerie cityscapes, new Trainer cards and additional Mega Evolution mechanics. According to early tracking data from the marketplace TCGplayer, several cards from the set have already generated significant buzz among collectors and competitive players, with prices climbing quickly in the days surrounding the set’s release.

At the very top of the list sits a Mega Darkrai ex card numbered 120/084, classified as a Mega Hyper Rare using the set’s signature gold-foil treatment. That card was trading for $996.69 on TCGplayer as of the latest tracking, making it the single most valuable card in the new expansion. Market watchers cautioned that early secondary-market prices for freshly released sets tend to be volatile, and that values for high-demand cards like this one often settle somewhat once more booster packs have been opened and additional copies enter circulation.

The second-most valuable card in the set is a different version of Mega Darkrai ex, numbered 116/084 and classified as a Special Illustration Rare, currently valued at $520.27. The artwork on that card draws directly from Pokémon franchise lore, depicting withered trees that reference the 2007 animated film “Pokémon: The Rise of Darkrai,” specifically the garden of Alamos Town, where the film’s version of Darkrai finds peace.

Rounding out the top three is Morpeko ex, numbered 117/084 and also classified as a Special Illustration Rare, currently valued at $192.98. Morpeko, a small rodent-like Pokémon introduced in the franchise’s eighth generation, has proven to be a consistent chase card in past sets as well, having previously ranked among the most sought-after cards in the Paradox Rift expansion.

Just behind Morpeko is Mega Zeraora ex, numbered 114/084, another Special Illustration Rare currently priced at $171.34. The card depicts the Electric-type mythical Pokémon in its Mega Evolved form, with collectors drawn to the vibrant artwork showcasing its enhanced, electrified design.

Further down the list, prices drop off considerably but remain well above typical booster-pack value for several additional cards. Misty’s Vitality, an Ultra Rare Trainer card numbered 111/084 featuring the longtime franchise character Misty, is valued at $60.36. The card allows players to search their deck for up to four Basic Water Energy cards and attach them directly to a Pokémon, continuing a pattern of strong secondary-market demand for cards featuring the character, following past high-value Misty cards from sets including Unified Minds and Hidden Fates.

Primarina, an Illustration Rare numbered 088/084, is currently valued at $44.67. The card depicts the Generation 7 starter Pokémon’s final evolution and includes an ability called Enriching Melody, which allows a player to heal damage from one of their Pokémon when evolving into Primarina during their turn.

Gladion’s Final Battle, a Trainer card numbered 118/084 tied to the Alola-region character Gladion, is valued at $29.24. The card, which can only be used when it is the last card remaining in a player’s hand, boosts the damage of attacks from Pokémon without Rule Boxes by 80 additional points during the turn it is played. The card has reportedly already seen competitive success at the Indonesia Master Ball League, an early tournament following the set’s release.

Slowbro, an Illustration Rare numbered 090/084, is valued at $28.49, with its artwork depicting the Pokémon in an urban setting rather than its traditional beachside environment. The card’s primary attack, All Out, deals additional damage when the player has no cards remaining in hand.

Goldeen, numbered 087/084, rounds out much of the list at $26.87. The card marks the first time the Water-type Pokémon has appeared as a full-art Illustration Rare in the trading card game’s history, a milestone that has driven demand among longtime collectors of the franchise’s original 151 Pokémon from the Kanto region.

At the more accessible end of the chase list is the Ultra Rare Mega Darkrai ex, numbered 116/084, valued at $27.23. The card’s in-game effect grants an automatic knockout against any opposing Pokémon that is asleep or poisoned when the attack, named Pitch Black, is used, a powerful mechanic that has already drawn attention from competitive players evaluating the set’s tournament potential.

Pricing across the set’s most valuable cards illustrates the wide range collectors can expect during a new expansion’s opening weeks, with values spanning from roughly $27 for lower-tier chase cards up to nearly $1,000 for the set’s premier gold-foil rarity. Analysts who track the trading card market have noted that prices for newly released Pokémon cards typically experience their sharpest swings during the first several weeks after launch, as initial scarcity gives way to a steadier supply once additional booster boxes and cases reach retailers and online marketplaces.

Pitch Black officially becomes available at retailers Friday, with products including booster bundles already listed at major retailers ahead of the release. As with previous Pokémon TCG expansions, collectors and competitive players alike are expected to continue monitoring secondary-market prices closely in the coming weeks to see which cards hold their early value and which settle into more typical price ranges as the broader supply of the set catches up with early demand.

A meteorite that punched through the roof of a New Jersey home two years ago has revealed a rich chemical record of the early solar system, including a diverse suite of amino acids that scientists say are almost entirely foreign to life on Earth.

The 2-pound space rock, now known as the Hillsborough meteorite, streaked across the daytime sky on July 16, 2024, drawing reports from observers across New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Pennsylvania. As it passed just south of the Statue of Liberty, the object produced a sonic boom felt by residents throughout New York City and New Jersey. Traveling at roughly 32,000 miles per hour, the meteor was estimated to be about the size of a heavy airline bag before it began breaking apart approximately 22 miles above the ground.

Doppler weather radar at Newark Liberty International Airport picked up a cloud of fragments raining down from the sky between Staten Island and New Jersey, but only one piece was ever recovered. That fragment crashed through the ceiling of a master bedroom in a home in Hillsborough, New Jersey, causing no injuries. The homeowners, who have asked to remain anonymous, acted quickly to preserve the fallen material, using disposable gloves, aluminum foil and glass jars to collect the black fragments and dust scattered across their bed and carpet.

Peter Jenniskens, a senior research scientist at the SETI Institute and NASA’s Ames Research Center, is the lead author of a study detailing the analysis of the meteorite, published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances. Jenniskens said the homeowners’ quick action extended beyond simply collecting the debris. Recognizing that the fragile, porous rock could absorb moisture from the air, the homeowners patched their roof before rain fell that same evening, a step Jenniskens said proved crucial to protecting the sample from contamination.

That preservation effort allowed researchers to study the meteorite in an unusually pristine state. Analysis showed it to be a rare, primitive type of space rock known as a CM-type carbonaceous chondrite, classified more specifically as an intermediate CM½ variety that exists between two established subtypes distinguished by how much water altered their composition while still attached to a larger parent asteroid. According to Jenniskens, the sample marks only the second time a CM½ meteorite has ever been observed falling to Earth, and the first time researchers have been able to study one in such well-preserved condition. A similar meteorite that fell in Indonesia in 2020 landed in mud, compromising much of its scientific value.

Jenniskens said the sample offers researchers an unusually direct look at the physical structure of its parent body, noting in written comments that it is the first CM-type meteorite found to contain fragments of rock that preserved the subsurface characteristics of the original asteroid. He said the Hillsborough meteorite likely broke away from a larger asteroid within the inner asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, following a chain of cosmic events he described in detail: a major collision formed a broader asteroid family at some point in the past, a smaller collision roughly 6 million years ago destroyed one of those asteroids, and the resulting fragment eventually settled into a near-Earth orbit before heat and cold cycling caused it to break apart again about 200,000 years ago, ultimately setting it on a path toward Earth.

Chemical analysis of the recovered fragments turned up high concentrations of sodium, a signature researchers believe originated from icy brines once present within the meteorite’s parent asteroid. As that water evaporated over time, it left behind concentrated salt minerals capable of forming molecules considered essential building blocks for life. Alongside those salts, researchers also detected organic carbon and a complex array of amino acids within the sample.

Study co-author Danny Glavin, a senior scientist in the Sample Return in the Solar System Exploration Division at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, said the detected amino acids were largely unlike anything found in Earth-based biology. “We detected a complex suite of amino acids, the fundamental building blocks of proteins, in water extracts of the Hillsborough meteorite,” Glavin said. “Most of the amino acids detected in Hillsborough are rare or nonexistent in life on Earth, so they are truly extraterrestrial in origin.” Glavin added that the diversity of amino acids identified in the sample exceeded what researchers found in pristine material returned from the carbon-rich asteroids Bennu and Ryugu, sampled respectively by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission in 2020 and Japan’s Hayabusa2 mission in 2019.

Researchers are now working to compare the salt minerals identified in the Hillsborough meteorite with those previously catalogued in the Bennu and Ryugu samples, aiming to better understand how water shaped the chemistry of primitive asteroids across the solar system. Fragments of the meteorite are currently being curated at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.

Outside researchers say the discovery adds meaningfully to scientists’ understanding of how life’s chemical precursors may have first reached Earth. Peter Brown, a professor in the department of physics and astronomy at Western University in Ontario who was not involved in the study, said the presence of brine within the meteorite offers a particularly strong window into how water once moved through and reacted with organic material inside a primitive asteroid. Brown said meteorites like the Hillsborough sample retain the chemical fingerprint of the early solar system precisely because, while altered by water, they never experienced the intense heating that many other space rocks endure, leaving them with a texture closer to crumbling soil or clay than solid stone.

Brown credited the homeowners’ fast, informed response with making the scientific analysis possible in the first place, noting that rainfall likely destroyed any additional fragments that landed outside before they could be collected. The homeowners connected shortly after the fall with Mike Hankey of the American Meteor Society, who guided them through the process of preserving the sample and minimizing contamination.

Reflecting on the experience, the homeowners said they understood almost immediately how rare the event was. “We knew almost immediately that what happened to us was incredibly rare and we felt a responsibility to preserve the meteorite for the scientific community,” they said in written comments. “It’s still surreal to think that this meteorite traveled through space for millions of years before ending its journey in our home. The entire experience has been incredible, and we’re honored to have played a small part in advancing scientific understanding through its study.”